Install the Skalpel CLI

One npm package installs two binaries: skalpel, the terminal UI, and skalpeld, a local daemon that meters your coding-agent traffic on your own machine. Your prompts stay local — Skalpel meters usage, not content.

1. Requirements

• Node.js ≥ 18 (for npm) on macOS, Linux, or Windows.
• A coding agent worth metering — Claude Code and Codex are wrapped today; Cursor is detected for display.

2. Install

npm install -g skalpel

This installs both binaries, registers the daemon as a per-OS service (launchd, systemd user unit, or Task Scheduler), and prepares the local proxy. npm sometimes hides installer output — use npm install -g skalpel --foreground-scripts to watch it work. Prefer zero-install? npx skalpel runs the TUI once without a persistent install (agent wrapping needs the global install).

3. Activate

If your Skalpel workspace gave you an activation command, paste it — it signs this machine in and walks you through wrapping your agents in one go:

npm install -g skalpel@latest && skalpel login --activation <token>

No activation yet? Create a workspace or just run skalpel — the walkthrough will point you at sign-in when your account is ready.

4. Wrap your agents

skalpel setup

Setup detects the harnesses installed on this machine and shows a checkbox picker — nothing is wrapped without your say-so. Once wrapped, each new claude or codex session prints skalpel active before the agent loads. Toggle any time with skalpel off / skalpel on, opt out entirely with SKALPEL_NO_AGENT_WRAP=1, and remove everything with skalpel uninstall.

What runs where

• skalpeld listens on 127.0.0.1:7878 and proxies your agent's provider traffic locally.
• Per-session usage (tokens, model, cost) is metered; transcript content is not shipped to Skalpel.
• The TUI (skalpel) shows live spend, engines, and account state.

Questions, or setting this up for a whole team? Book a call or write to [email protected].